WHEATLAND, Mo. — One of the most successful drivers in USMTS history put an end to Dereck Ramirez’s domination at Lucas Oil Speedway on Saturday as Rodney Sanders led all 50 laps to hold off Ramirez in Saturday night’s 13th annual USMTS Slick Mist Show-Me Shootout presented by Foley Equipment.
Ramirez had won the race the three previous seasons, but Sanders kept him from making it four in a row and took home the $10,000 payday.
The 33-year-old from Happy, Texas, also expanded his season points lead in a bid to make it five Summit USMTS National championship titles.
“Dereck is super good here,” Sanders said. “He’s been really getting himself going lately and I knew he would be hard to beat.”Ramirez said it was hard to take off on the bottom of the track, where he started the race as Sanders set the pace. “He got the jump on the start. Rodney passed the lapped cars at the right time.
“Second sucks, but I guess all good things must come to an end. That’s the way it goes.”
Sanders, winning the Slick Mist Show-Me Shootout for a second time, started outside of row one and had the early command with Tyler Wolff in second and Ramirez settling into third.
While trailing the leader by just over a second, Wolff jumped over the cushion in turn three on lap 10 and slapped the wall to bring out the race’s first and only caution.
“I saw Tyler get his nose underneath me at the beginning and I was gonna try to keep a pace where I didn’t go too fast, but still be able to keep the lead,” Sanders said. “I just have to thank everybody that helps me. This has been a great year so far. It just feels good to get going again.”
Sanders had a terrific restart and took a six-car-length lead over Sanders with Terry Phillips climbing from fifth to third on lap 11. As the 50-lapper hit the midpoint, Sanders was maintaining a one-second lead over Ramirez as the leaders navigated lapped traffic.
The biggest mover of the race to that point was Jason Hughes, who advanced from 12th to fourth, but he was more than three seconds behind the leading trio. Hughes eventually pulled off with mechanical issues while running fourth with just six to laps go.
With a long green-flag run continuing, Sanders expanded his lead to 1.6 seconds by lap 35 with Phillips another 1.5 seconds behind Ramirez. Ramirez gradually cut into the margin, pulling within just under a second of Sanders on lap 42, but the next time around Sanders expanded it to 1.6 seconds.
The only threat to Sanders was a caution flag and that didn’t occur. He finished off the flag-to-flag victory 1.5 seconds in front of Ramirez.
Sanders said he caught a break in the redraw by getting the Sybesma Graphics Pole Award.
“I felt like I was lucky all night,” Sanders said. “I didn’t qualify good, but got on the front row of the heat. That’s how it goes sometimes. Luck—you try to capitalize on it sometimes when the opportunity presents itself. We definitely had some luck tonight, but we held ‘em off.”
Phillips finished third, Dan Ebert was fourth and Tanner Mullens captured fifth after starting 16th.
Ryan Gillmore won the B-mod feature and Mason Beck topped the stock cars.
The finish:
Feature – 1. 20-Rodney Sanders[2]; 2. 4R-Dereck Ramirez[1]; 3. 75-Terry Phillips[8]; 4. 60-Dan Ebert[3]; 5. 02-Tanner Mullens[16]; 6. 33Z-Zack VanderBeek[5]; 7. 10C-Cayden Carter[15]; 8. 24C-Jim Chisholm[21]; 9. 87-Darron Fuqua[7]; 10. 0-Jake O’Neil[23]; 11. 4W-Tyler Wolff[4]; 12. 58X-Gary Christian[24]; 13. 3B-Nic Bidinger[10]; 14. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[19]; 15. 4-Jeremy Nelson[17]; 16. 55H-AJ Hoff[6]; 17. 99L-Steve Lavasseur[14]; 18. 91-Joe Duvall[9]; 19. 21-Ryan Middaugh[20]; 20. 21K-Kyle Brown[22]; 21. 10B-Brandon Givens[27]; 22. 38C-Jason Pursley[25]; 23. 98-Jeff Cutshaw[13]; 24. 12-Jason Hughes[12]; 25. K9-Will Krup[11]; 26. 22-Austen Becerra[18]; 27. (DNS) 1X-Matt Johnson
Keyword: Sanders Is Wheatland USMTS Star